Dropdown
by Powderfinger
Summary: Tim Shepard has just been released from prison, but he's a long way from being free.
1. Chapter 1

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders.

Dropdown- A horse meeting a lower class of rival than he had been running against. (Daily Racing Forum)

**Dropdown**

Chapter One-

Friday before Labor Day they let Tim out, which he was secretly glad for because Labor Day weekend was when they held the prison rodeo, and he was sure he was a dead man if he stayed in Macalester. Not that he was entered or going to enter in any event. Tim couldn't ride bulls, had never roped and tied anything, and made it a rule to avoid horses at all costs. If he'd stayed for the rodeo, he would've been assigned to help out the prison medic because Tim possessed a certain level of knowledge about patching guys up. Inside the fences, though, was just as dangerous a place to be as out in the arena. Once you got an injured guy out of the arena and into that maze, there wasn't a clear sight line to anywhere. The guards couldn't reliably keep an eye on anyone, and Tim was sure that he was going to get shanked.

He wasn't sure who it was who was coming for him. The possibilities opened up during the rodeo- they brought guys in from MacLeod and Atoka and from a farm unit in Lincoln County, Arkansas. If you were going to hire a guy to take a guy out and then get back on the bus to wherever at the end of the day, Labor Day weekend at Mac was when and where to do it.

So the news that he was going to be released on a technicality and sooner rather than later came as a relief to him. Finding a ride back to Tulsa, however, would prove to be as nearly a long and winding road as pulling a broken body through the fences to an ambulance.

He called his mom to come pick him up, and got her common-law husband on the line instead. Any conversation with that dumb bastard was a losing proposition.

"Where's Ma?" Tim asked.

"The hell should I know?"

"Well, you married her."

"Yeah, and someday you'll understand, Casanova, the way you keep a women is by not keeping tabs on her every blessed minute. Keep 'em on a long tether."

Tim smirked. For just a second, he'd thought Jerome was going to go all feminist on him, but then he blew it.

"I'll remember that," Tim said. "File it away for future use. Where's Curly?"

"School. Or he'd better be."

Tim had forgotten about school. Curly should still be there. The truant officer had made that very clear to their mother on his hundredth visit to their house. He'd used Tim as an example of where Curly was headed if he didn't start showing more interest in his education.

Tim sighed. "Is my car there?"

"What the hell do you need it for? You ain't going anywhere."

"Turns out, I am. They're cutting me loose. I'm out at high noon."

"How far is that?" Jerome asked.

_You'd know if you ever drove my mother down here to visit me_, Tim thought. He told Jerome, "About ninety miles."

"Don't you have a girlfriend you could call?" Jerome asked, dismissing even the remote possibility that he might drive down and pick up Tim himself.

"No, old man," Tim said. "I guess I haven't mastered that fine art of keeping 'em on a long tether yet."

"You got any friends at all, smart ass?"

"Yeah. Just not so easy getting them on the phone."

He hung up on Jerome. He didn't mean anything by it. The conversation, if you could call it that, was just over.

Tim tapped the receiver against the glass window that separated him from the guard at the intake desk.

"Can I make another collect call?" He asked.

"What's the number?"

Tim rubbed his eyes and imagined the numbers. He recited them as he saw them in head through the glass to the guard. It took almost five rings for Buck Merrill to answer.

"Hey," Tim said. "It's Shepard."

"Goddamn, it is my birthday? What'd I do to deserve this honor? Ain't you locked up?"

"As of two hours from now, no. I'm sprung."

"Good behavior? I find that hard to believe."

"No room at the inn. Place is overcrowded as shit, and I was due out in a month anyway. Is Dally around?"

Buck snickered. "Guest of the County."

"You're shittin' me. Christ, I don't suppose you want to meander down here and pick me up. I got gate money coming."

"What the hell do you think it is I do here all day, Shepard? I'm running a bar."

"My sincerest apologies."

Buck thought for a moment, and then said, "Mathews is here. He's shooting pool with a coupla bass-ackwards hillbillies blew in from Arkansas. Ain't been here too long though. Should be nearly sober enough to drive."

Tim thought that maybe he'd rather stay in prison. It wasn't that he didn't like Two-Bit. Tim liked him about as much as he liked anyone. Trusted him about as much, too. It was just that Two-Bit liked to talk, and Tim would've preferred to be sleeping or listening to the radio or thinking about in what order he needed to do things to set his life right when he got back to Tulsa. With Dally locked up and Curly in school, though, Tim didn't see himself with many other options. Most of his gang had open warrants. They couldn't chance getting within a mile of anywhere there were cops holed up in sniper towers.

"Yeah," he said to Buck. "Put him on."

* * *

"What the hell happened to you?"

Two-Bit heard her voice before he saw her. He took a step back again, and looked around, in case she was inclined to throw something at him.

"Did you hear me? Christ, where have you been?"

He wasn't so sure it was any of her business where he'd been, but then he remembered it was her car he drove to get there, and he still needed it, so he had to work the situation with care.

"Just been shootin' some pool. Take it easy, baby."

And he'd screwed it up, right out of the chute. Never tell an angry woman to 'take it easy', most especially not this woman.

Her name was Hazel, and if you had reached a point with her where you were imploring her to 'take it easy', then you already had a fight on your hands. Two-Bit winced, and tried to think his way out of the hole he'd dug.

She'd come out of somewhere in the big house where she had a room and shared the kitchen and bath with Christ-knows-how-many other people. It was cheap, she said, and there were no roaches. Occasionally, a rat, but Hazel was no more afraid of a rat than she was of Two-Bit.

She stood with her arms folded across her chest, leaning against the frame of the door that led into the kitchen. Two-Bit crushed down an errant wish for a cup of coffee. No way was he getting past her until they'd had this conversation.

The name Hazel didn't fit a damned thing about her except for her eyes. For him, the name conjured up images of librarians- a job which Hazel may have actually done from time to time when she wasn't waiting tables, or watching kids at recess, or cleaning a church or doing any number of other things 180 degrees in the opposite direction from legal. She was tall enough that she didn't need to wear heels, but everything about her seemed tiny, bird-like. At first glance, she looked like a girl you could break in half without a second thought, but Two-Bit knew better.

"I was shooting a couple of games of pool…"

"You said that. You left yesterday."

"I put a tank of gas in."

"And that took you fifteen hours?"

"Haze, do you want to go for a drive?"

"Yes, in my car. Without you. I'd like to go to the store."

Two-Bit dropped his head down and grinned. Maybe the looking dumb and bashful thing would get him somewhere.

"We could go to the store on our way," he offered.

"On our way where?"

He took a deep breath. This wasn't going to be easy.

"Macalester. A buddy of mine's getting sprung at noon. He needs a ride back up here."

"Doesn't he have a family?"

"He does, but- believe you me- they're the kind of people where he'd rather see me first thing on getting out of the joint than them."

"And what kind of person does that make him?" She asked.

Fair question. "He's kind of a quiet guy."

"He didn't go to Mac for being quiet."

"Actually, he did. He could've rolled over on some guys and walked away with parole, but he didn't."

Two-Bit figured this might make Tim sound at least half-way worth knowing to Hazel, but she remained dubious.

"How long has he been in?"

Two-Bit tried to remember. He guessed: "Maybe six months."

He could see Hazel running the numbers in her head. Her dad had been inside, so had one of her brothers. She was trying to figure out, based on experience, what Tim hadn't rolled over on.

"Well, nobody got killed," she said. "Or he'd be doing more time than that. Drugs, guns, money? Girls? If it's girls, he can walk back to Tulsa."

Two-Bit shook his head. "Wasn't girls. Wasn't dope. Neither one's his thing."

"Girls are not his thing?" She asked, a little smirk on her face.

"I mean, running girls is not his thing. Girls, as a general rule, sit just fine with him. I think. Come to think of it, I've never known him to have a steady girlfriend."

"Well, I've never known you to have a steady girlfriend, either," Hazel said. She dropped her arms to her sides and turned to go into the kitchen, and Two-Bit knew he had her at least interested if not agreeable.


	2. Chapter 2

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders

**Dropdown**

Chapter Two-

At 12:15, Tim walked through the front gate of the Oklahoma State Prison at Macalester and looked out across the parking lot. It was nearly full, and it made him tense. There were horse trailers, a couple of prison busses, and cars full of women and kids. There were a million and one places for someone to hold out and hide, waiting to strike.

It was hot as hell on the pavement, too. He'd have preferred to sling his leather jacket over his shoulder while he cruised the parking lot, but he put it on over his t-shirt in order to have both hands free.

He ignored the first whistle from the northeast side of the lot. He figured it was someone moving horses. When the whistle came again, he looked and saw Two-Bit waving. Tim nodded and jogged towards the car. Two-Bit wasn't alone. There was a girl sitting next to him on the hood. Tim didn't think he knew her, but as he got closer he thought maybe he'd seen her around. She had nice legs, in any case. She probably smelled good. She'd be worth sneaking a look at every now and then while Two-Bit was chattering all the way back up north.

He let his guard down thinking about it. He nearly walked right into a couple of sinewy- looking cowboys when they stepped into his path.

They both hitched their thumbs into their belts and looked down at Tim, blocking his path.

"Rodeo's that way," Tim said, jerking his head back towards the prison.

"We're friends of Simon's."

"Didn't know he had any."

"I think he was hoping to still count you as one," the second cowboy said.

Tim let his arms hang loose. He cracked his neck while he thought of a reply.

"I woulda thought that had been obvious," he said. "Since he's running around Tulsa scot-free and ain't back there behind me in the joint."

"Well, as a gesture of his continued friendship, he sent us to give you a ride back up."

So this was the plan, Tim thought. This was how they intended to do him in.

"I got a ride," he told the cowboys. "And, no offense, but there's a girl in that car that's a helluva lot better looking than either one of you."

"Well, maybe she'd like to ride with us too."

"Why don't you give me a minute, and I'll go ask her."

"That's a hard 'no'," said a voice from behind the wall of cowboys. They turned, and there was Two-Bit, grinning with his arms hanging loose like Tim's. "God's honest truth, boys, I asked her, and she said 'hell, no', and it's her car, so I'm obligated to comply with her wishes."

"You don't think Shepard here is obligated to comply with ours?" The first cowboy said.

"From what I understand, as of seventeen and a half minutes ago, Shepard is a free man. He's legally an adult, and he's of sound mind and body...I'm assuming. They seen him fit to stand trial anyways. It's a free country, gentlemen. As I see it, Tim ain't obligated to comply with anyone's wishes other than his own."

Tim looked up at the sky and blinked. Two-Bit was incapable of giving a simple 'yes' or 'no'. It felt like it was getting hotter by the second standing on the concrete.

The cowboys turned back to Tim.

Tim shrugged. "You know where my head is, y'all. I'm getting in the car with the pretty girl in it."

"Yeah, you and I might have to talk about that," Two-Bit said, but he was still grinning. "I mean, where your head's at with that and all."

"We got us ninety miles back to Tulsa to figure it out," Tim said. He told the cowboys. "Tell Simon I said thanks for thinking of me. I'll pay him a courtesy visit once I get settled."

He pushed his way between them and followed Two-Bit towards the car.

"Jesus Christ," Two-Bit said. "Simon think you got him over a barrel yet? If that's who he sent to sort it out, the pickings must be slim among the gangsters these days."

"Ease up on the 'g' word, will ya?" Tim said. "I don't know this girl of yours, and I don't need her knowing anything more about me other than I'm tall, dark, handsome and charming as fuck."

"You want shotgun or the back?'

"Can I sit in the back with her?"

"Ask her. I dare you. If you thought those two back there were soulless, man, you this one'll eat you alive."

They reached the car, and Hazel stood up. Tim would've expected her to ask what the business with the cowboys was all about, but she didn't.

"Tim, Hazel, Hazel, Tim," Two-Bit said.

Tim held out his hand. "Nice to meet you, sis."

"You want the front or the back?" Was all she said.

"I'll sit up front with him," Tim told her. "I'd guess he and I got some things to talk about."

Hazel paused before heading back towards the rear door. She looked Tim dead in the eye, and he couldn't for the life of him guess what she was thinking. When she turned to get in the car, he jumped forward a step to open the door for her. She was still eyeing him as she slid inside almost to the middle. Tim shut her door and got in. Two-Bit bounced in behind the steering wheel, laughing at Tim.

"Charming as fuck, alright," he said. "That's you all over , Shepard."

* * *

Billy Simon hadn't expected much from the cowboys, but he had been confident that they would be able to strong-arm Tim Shepard into a car in the Macalester parking lot and then leave his lifeless body somewhere in or around Lake Eufaula. A quick call from a source at the prison had revealed to him that not was this not going to occur. Instead, Tim had got in a car with a guy and a girl and headed east towards 69. The cowboys had then got in their truck and headed south. Where they went from there was anybody's guess- the road connected with 270 running east and west. What was certain is that they had headed out with Simon's money.

"Christ on the cross," he grumbled as he hung up the phone.

Billy's wife- Eleanor- looked up from the dishes she was washing.

"Don't blaspheme."

Billy and Eleanor were something of an anomaly in the Tulsa underworld. They were legally married, even filed their taxes together. Eleanor was a member of what Billy referred to "one of them snake-handling, Pentacostal clusterfucks" behind her back, but in her presence he typically towed the line.

"Not right now, Nellie," Billy said.

"Only when it's convenient then, hmm? Ain't the way it works, Bill."

Billy drummed his fingers on the kitchen table. He had no inclination to explain to her that the way it worked was he paid a guy and the guy got the job done- especially if it was a job that involved intercepting a smartass kid who thought he was a gangster before he returned to Tulsa with a headful of information that could send Billy to the State Pen, possibly to Leavenworth. If Tim Shepard had just disappeared, no one would have been surprised. Most likely his own mother wouldn't even miss him.

"What time is it?" Billy asked.

"Ten to one."

"What time does school get out?"

"What do you need to know for?"

"Was gonna trade you in for a younger model. Thought I'd cruise by the high school and check out this year's crop."

Eleanor chucked a damp dish towel at him.

"School's not out till three," Eleanor said, not rattled a bit. "Means I got plenty of time to prove to you the benefits of age and experience before beauty."

"Those Shepard boys from downtown- what high school is that?"

"The one in the center of town? That's Central, Bill."

He muttered "wise ass" under his breath and took a swipe at her with the towel.

"What's the little Shepard kid's name again? Do you remember? He was here one time. Ate everything in sight."

"That's boys for you. Charlie? Cary? Curly. It was Curly."

"Yeah, it was."

Billy stretched back with his hands behind his head and scowled at the opposite wall.

"What are you thinking, Bill?"

"I was thinking about paying Curly a visit. Maybe he'd like to join me for a bite to eat."


	3. Chapter 3

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders.

Rabbit- A horse that is considered to have little chance of winning a race but is entered purely to ensure a fat pace and tire out the other front-runners, softening up the competition for the benefit of an entrymate. (Daily Racing Forum)

**Dropdown**

Chapter Three-

Tim just had a bad feeling about it.

They had stopped for burgers in Crowder. They could have stopped in Macalester, but Tim had wanted to put a little distance between him and the prison, and Two-Bit understood. Still, forty miles down the road and the bad feeling lingered in Tim's gut.

He sat up on the edge of a picnic table and stared across the highway at the lake. In Tulsa, Tim sometimes found himself staring at the river, and he found that he liked the way the water moved. He'd taken to walking out onto the bridge and staring down at the Arkansas when he needed to clear his head. The lake water didn't move like the river, though, and looking at it wasn't doing anything for him.

Two-Bit was talking, but that barely registered. Now and then, when Two-Bit paused to draw breath, Hazel would get a word in.

At first it was the girl Tim thought was spooking him. He didn't know her, and she wasn't saying much sitting in the back seat, which meant she was listening. She seemed like the kind of girl who would always be listening for something she could throw back at you later.

As he was wont to do, Two-Bit shattered Tim's concentration.

"So, how's it feel, Shepard?"

Tim didn't look away from the lake. The early Labor Day partiers were beginning to gather on the shoreline. A couple of guys with fishing pools and some kids with innertubes. What looked like high schoolers were collecting wood for a bonfire.

Tim frowned and asked, "How's what feel?"

"Bein' a free man."

"It's alright."

Two-Bit howled. "Alright? Jesus, man, what do I gotta do to get myself sent to Mac? Do you miss it that much?"

Tim didn't answer. Two-Bit informed them that he was going back inside the diner to get some salt. He walked away from the car, still laughing. Tim felt Hazel's eyes on him.

"What?" He asked.

"Not quite free yet, is that it?" Hazel asked.

"Something like that."

"Those guys back at the prison, did Billy send them?"

_Now we're getting somewhere_, Tim thought. She's finally going to show her cards.

Instead of answering her, he asked, "You know Billy then?"

"I know he's the kind of jackass who would send someone else all the way down here to take care of you rather have to get his hands dirty on his own turf."

Tim looked down at his feet and smiled.

"And how did you come upon that piece of wisdom?"

Hazel got up from where she was sitting behind him and came to stand next to him at the end of the table. Up this close, Tim could smell the scent of shampoo coming off of her hair as it warmed up in the sun. He cast a sideways glance down at her. Her blouse was open at the top, enough that he could see her breast curving away from her collarbone. She had to know he was looking, but she didn't make a move to adjust her blouse.

"Church," she told him.

"You learned that in church?"

"His wife goes to those tent churches. The ones that pop up in the summertime. Revival meetings. My mom's into that scene since my dad took off. My mom met Eleanor at a revival. We got invited to dinner."

Tim raised his eyebrows.

"Sunday dinner with Billy and Nellie. That must've been a treat."

"It was a Tuesday," Hazel said. "But- yeah- it was...I don't know. Just something was off, I could feel it. You ever just have one of those gut feelings?"

Tim shrugged and didn't tell her that he had one right now. He still couldn't get a bead on the source, but he was feeling less and less like it was Hazel.

She continued, "At first, I thought Billy was going to make a move on my mom or me when Nellie wasn't looking, you know? He was kind of flirty with my mom, and maybe that's why Nellie never let her out of her sight. After dinner, they stayed at the table talking about Jesus and whatever. I got bored, so I told my mom that I was going to get something out of the car, but I was really going to take a hit off of this bottle of Beam I saw in the kitchen when I was helping clear the table. So, I snag this bottle and step out onto the back step, and all of the sudden there's Billy, and he says, 'Save me some of that, will ya'. And I was damned sure right then he was going to pin me up against the side of the house and put his hand up my sweater or something."

Tim nodded.

"But he didn't, huh?"

Hazel shook her head. "No. He sure stood a little too close to me for my comfort, but maybe it was just so we could talk real quiet. He started asking me all kinds of questions about horses. What did I know about horses because every girl he knows loves horses and shit. I told him horses give me the creeps, but it's like he didn't hear me. Just kept talking about horses, and then it turned into had I ever been to the track."

"What'd you tell him?"

"I told him no because I don't give a shit about horses. He asked me if I thought I could pretend to give a shit if there was money in it for me. You see where this is headed?"

"He needed a rabbit," Tim teased her. "He was looking for a pretty, little girl to scope out bets at the track. Flirt with the big money guys, get them to tell you who they were betting on. That it?"

"Yeah, except it was never the big money guys. Sort of the mid-range money guys."

"Scamming the real high rollers would attract too much attention. Did you do it?"

"A couple of times until one of the guys he sent me to flirt with got a little too flirty. I told Billy I was done, and he told me to tell him who the guy was and he'd take care of it. I told him I didn't need him to beat anybody up, that it was over and done, nothing he did was going to change that that creepy drunk bastard put his hands on me. Billy said, 'I ain't going to beat him up'. Then he said he was going to send two guys- see a pattern there? Anyway, I told him- again- it didn't make a difference if they beat the guy up, and he says, 'they ain't going to beat him up either'."

Tim took a final drag on his cigarette and chucked the filter into the gravel. He looked back over his shoulder towards the diner. He didn't see Two-Bit, so he asked Hazel:

"Did you see Billy again after that?"

Hazel shook her head.

"Not on purpose anyway. Sometimes I run into him, and I get the feeling like it ain't quite a coincidence. He seems like the type who would keep tabs on somebody."

"Yeah, you ain't kidding."

Tim did not tell Hazel that Billy had been keeping tabs on him since he was in junior high. It had started with a simple errand, running numbers between bars, and one errand had turned into another until Tim had far too deep a knowledge of Billy's operations for Billy to ever cut Tim loose. He changed the subject:

"So, what's with you and Mathews?" Tim asked her.

"What's with him and anyone?"

"So you're aware of that?"

"Yeah," Hazel said. "You got an opinion on that, you can just keep it to yourself."

"Why would I have an opinion about it?"

"You know he plays around, you know that I know, you might make some assumptions about me."

Tim shook his head. He'd bought a pack of cigarettes from the machine outside the diner, but the machine had been out of matches. Twenty times now, he'd taken the pack out and shook out a cigarette only to find he had nothing to light it with. He did it again- aware that doing it was making him look like some kind of compulsive nitwit- and this time he tucked the cigarette behind his ear.

Tim told her: "I don't make assumptions. I've found it's safest not to. It keeps me from being dead."

Hazel said, "Do you want a light?"

Tim took the cigarette from behind his ear, and Hazel produced a lighter from her purse. Tim handed her the cigarette and let her light it and take the first drag. He found himself smirking just a little. She'd had that lighter all along and had been letting him act all goofy without intervening.

"Thanks," Tim said. He took the cigarette back. "What is it you're so afraid that I'm assuming?"

"_Afraid_ is kind of a strong word, but there are some guys who- knowing that I knowingly go out with a guy who fools around- would assume that I'm the kind of girl who would do the same."

"Are you?"

"Well, it's not really playing around if we're not really a couple, is it?"

Tim blew smoke out of the side of his mouth, and said, "That would make you more the kind of girl who gets around."

"Are you calling me fast?"

"I honestly don't have a clue," he told her. "But when we get back to Tulsa, do you want to go have a drink someplace?"

"You just got out of prison, and there are people who are trying to kill you."

"You going to make assumptions about me based on that?"

"No, I'd just prefer not to be in the line of fire."

"Fair enough. How about we blow town then? Go to Catoosa or Broken Arrow or Kansas or someplace?"

Hazel laughed.

"Do you realize you sound a little desperate? I mean, I am the first woman you've talked to in six months, and you want to take me to Kansas tonight."

"Hell with you," Tim said, grinning at her. "I ain't desperate for nothing. I just figured maybe it's a sign. Maybe you're the first girl I talked to in six months for a reason. We got Billy in common. Maybe we got other stuff we could talk about too."

Tim heard Two-Bit's voice behind them. Both he and Hazel turned. Two-Bit was coming out of the diner, holding the door for two younger high school girls who looked like they'd just come from swimming in the lake. They had wet hair and were barefoot. Two-Bit was holding the door halfway ajar and directing their attention to the sign in the window that said _No shirt, no shoes, no service_.

Hazel rolled her eyes. She turned back to Tim.

"Kansas it is," she said.


	4. Chapter 4

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders.

**Dropdown**

Four-

Tim had Two-Bit and Hazel drop him off at his mom's place. He walked up to the front of the house, but didn't go inside. Instead, he sat down on the steps to wait for Curly. He knew his step-father was probably in the house, his mother too, but he didn't feel like the fight or the guilt trip that no doubt awaited him if he went in. Hazel had agreed to meet him at Buck's at six. He was only halfway joking about Kansas. It was an hour up to a town on the state line called Caney. He'd been there enough times to know where to find a bar.

The bells from the Catholic church began to chime three o'clock. Tim figured maybe a ten to fifteen minute wait for Curly to appear. His car was parked on the curb, and after a few minutes he stretched and then walked down to it to find out if she'd turn over.

In theory, no one had started the car since February. He'd left the keys under the front seat and told Curly he'd tear him a new asshole if he took it joyriding. Tim opened the passenger side door and leaned across the seat and fished around underneath. No keys.

"Son of a bitch," he mumbled, turning onto his stomach to see beneath the seat. No keys, but just as disconcerting was the absence of a loaded .357 that he also kept stowed there. He hadn't even warned Curly about that since Curly wasn't supposed to be rooting around looking for the keys. Tim rolled over onto his back and lay there staring up at the roof. He sighed.

Six months in a cell, and never a moment to himself- Tim just wanted to be left alone. Just for an hour or two, then drive up to Caney with Hazel. Have a couple of drinks, maybe hop in the backseat. She hadn't said much until he dragged it out of her, the story about Billy Simon. Maybe, if he didn't try to drag any stories out of her, she'd keep her mouth shut on the way up to Caney.

He heard footsteps on the sidewalk, and- out of habit- he reached for the blade in his back pocket. Six months away, and all of the habits came right back: the cigarettes in his front shirt pocket, the knife in his jeans, the gun- the real parole violation- in his car. Without a weapon and laying on his back- exposed- like an overturned turtle, Tim could do nothing but wait.

He didn't have to wait long. The shadow rounded the open door and the rest of the figure materialized before him.

"I thought you were Curly," his sister Angela said. No fanfare. Just her wrinkled nose and heavily made-up eyes looking down at him, turning on her ankle like she was flirting with God-knows-who.

"Ma let you out of the house in that skirt, Angel?"

"Yeah. You're the only one who thinks he gets to tell me what to wear. Don't think I'm going back to that either."

"Was Curly in school?"

"Yeah. I saw him at noon."

"Has he been driving my car?"

Angela shrugged.

"If he was, he didn't take me anywhere."

"Well, you would've known not to ask him to, right?"

Again, Angela shrugged. It was either hot or cold with her- that much hadn't changed- she was either talking his ear off or she was clammed up and looking at him like he had the plague.

Tim hoisted himself up and sat in the open door, looking up at his sister. She was beautiful in the same way that he and Curly were handsome- dark and a little mysterious, of indeterminate ethnicity. Billy Simon had looked at Tim once, and asked, "Shepard- what kinda name is that?" Tim had told him he didn't know, that he didn't know his dad.

It was a well-practiced lie, and it seemed to satisfy Billy. The truth- check the Dawes Rolls and most of the Shepards will be Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Creek Freedmen- didn't sit well with the half of Tulsa that wouldn't willingly desegregate its schools. When he was trying to get a job, the lie always got him farther.

"Did you see Curly after school?" Tim asked Angela. Curly should've been there by now, if not close enough behind their sister to be kicking the backs of her shoes to hear her curse, then at least within a couple of blocks.

"No, not after lunch, but he goes to shop after lunch."

Tim looked up at her and winked.

"If you tell me, I'll make it worth your while."

"Tell you what?" She was too easily baited.

"If he was driving my car."

Angela grinned.

"Yeah, a couple of weeks ago. He said he just wanted to see if it would start after sitting for that long."

"Then where'd he put the keys?"

"How the hell should I know? Probably above the visor like everyone else does."

Tim reached back and pulled the visor down. The keys fell into his lap.

"What are you going to give me?" Angela asked.

"A swift kick in the ass. Go on up to the house now."

"Jesus, Tim. You're such a liar."

Tim rolled his eyes. He pulled out his wallet while she turned back and forth on her ankle.

"Here," he said, handing her a five. "Go buy yourself a longer skirt."

* * *

Billy Simon waited in his car across the street from Central High School scanning the crowds of kids pouring out through the doors. He was pretty sure he'd know the Shepard kid if he saw him. Same black, curly hair as his brother, maybe not as tall, not quite enough of him to fill out a t-shirt. The both of them looked like Gypsies to Billy, at least what he imagined Gypsies to look like.

The kids scattered and the busses pulled away. No sign of Curly Shepard. Maybe the little fucker was skipping. Maybe Eleanor was wrong about the school. No way these kids had the dough to go to the Catholic school, and they were a little too wayward to justify giving scholarships.

Billy turned the key in the ignition. His mind was already moving on to Plan B- really, at this point, Plan C- when he noticed a movement from a second floor window. The window was half-open already, but now there was a body slipping through the opening. Billy watched, amused. It was a helluva drop, and the drain pipe was two rooms over at the corner of the building. Whoever was sneaking out the window needed a Plan C himself.

The body swung out the window and hung there, clinging to the sill, looking down and calculating. Or maybe not. Maybe just closing his eyes and praying. A few more seconds and down it went. On his ass into a shrub.

It was definitely Curly Shepard. Probably cutting out of detention, and risking a broken arm to do it. Billy remembered how Curly had been over at the house- all of his brother's bravado, but nothing going on in his head to back it up. Tim Shepard would've found a way out of the detention room without risking life and limb. He probably would've just walked out the door. Hell, he probably wouldn't have gone in the first place.

At least the boy was fast. He was up and out of the shrub before you could say 'boo'. He didn't bother to brush himself off, just ran for the street and straight towards Billy.

Billy reached his arm out the open window and waved. Curly came to a skidding halt next to the car.

"Remember me?" Billy asked.

"Yes, sir," Curly was nearly breathless. Fifteen and already a seasoned smoker. "Yes, Mr. Simon. What're you doing here? You got a kid?"

"No. I was waiting for you."

Again, the vast gulf between their personalities: Tim would've questioned that, the way he questioned everything. Curly seemed to accept it like it was divine intervention.

Billy asked him, "Do you need a ride, son? You look like you could use a getaway driver."

Curly grinned. "Yes, sir."

He darted around to the passenger side and got in next to Billy.

It was so easy that Billy almost didn't trust it, but then he liked to think he knew a sure thing when he saw it.


	5. Chapter 5

SE Hinton owns the Outsiders.

**Dropdown**

Five-

When he wasn't seeing Hazel, or a girl named Christine, or a girl named Lyla, Two-Bit was seeing a girl named Kathy whose brother- Kevin- was Tim Shepard's level of tough, but only about half as smart. Kevin Mitchell had seen Two-Bit around Buck's with Hazel more than once, but never seemed to put two and two together. This time he was standing on the front steps of Buck's, nursing a bottle of beer, and watching Two-Bit get out of Hazel's car at three-thirty in the afternoon. Two-Bit thought about telling Hazel to drive around for a minute, and then decided against it.

"You coming out tonight?" He asked her.

"Don't know," she said. Her mind seemed to be somewhere else.

"Well, I'll call you then."

"Yeah," she said. She shook off whatever the thought was and smiled at him. He liked her smile. She always smiled like she was up to no-good.

"Thanks, baby," he told her. "For letting me use the car."

Hazel just shrugged.

Two-Bit looked again at Kevin standing on the front steps. Now Kevin was looking directly at him. Two-Bit imagined that he had a big red X on his chest, and that Kevin was most likely going to sink his fist into it. He told Hazel "catch you later" and steeled himself for that blow.

"Nice car, Mathews," Kevin said as Two-Bit neared the steps. "Who's the broad?"

"My cousin," Two-Bit said. "From Brumly."

"You got cousins in Brumly?"

"Just the one."

Kevin looked at Two-Bit like he didn't quite trust him, but didn't have any kind of a follow-up to confirm his suspicions. Two-Bit clapped him on the back and bounced into the bar. Toward the back, through the haze of cigarette smoke, he could see Kathy Mitchell sitting at a table with a couple of other girls. She looked up at him and smiled.

* * *

_This must be it_, Tim figured- the source of the bad feeling he'd had all day. Should've been one helluva day. He was out of Mac. He should've been headed to Buck's for a celebratory beer, headed up to Caney with Hazel, headed back in time to finished getting tanked at Buck's. Instead, he sat inside his car outside of his mother's house, still waiting for Curly.

Not that being late wasn't out of the realm of possibility for Curly. He had a way of getting distracted, but this was too long. Curly was the "Call me late, but don't call me late for dinner" type, and it was creeping up on dinner time. By now, Tim figured, it was even possible that the news of his return had gotten to Curly. Not that he cared or anything, but Tim had figured on Curly coming in a hurry to greet him.

In the time that he'd spent waiting, Tim had even gone inside the house. His step-father had grunted something about "you found yourself a ride", and his mother had asked if he was staying.

"Going to catch a shower," Tim told her. "Did Curly go to school today?"

"No one called and said he didn't," his mother replied.

Tim had snatched a piece of toast from the table and headed upstairs to the room he and his brother shared. He took his shower, put on fresh clothes, and shaved. On his way downstairs again, he stopped at Angela's room.

The door was closed and he could hear music playing inside. Tim rapped on the door with his knuckles.

"Angel," he called. "Where does Curly hang out after school these days?"

"I don't know. I don't hang out with him."

"Notice anyone new in his life of late?"

"Like a girl? Who'd go out with him?"

"Sound logic," Tim mumbled and continued on his way.

It was almost five o'clock now. He figured maybe he'd drive around a little big, take the long way to Buck's, and maybe he'd spot Curly. Maybe he'd stop by Billy Simon's place and have that conversation.

* * *

Billy's car was not parked in front of the house when Tim drove by. He didn't stop. He didn't like Eleanor and wanted to avoid any kind of conversation with her. In her own way, she struck him as being just as manipulative and evil as her husband- possibly more so. Everything Eleanor did was couched in some kind of Christian rhetoric. Tim wasn't believing it for a second.

He drove by the high school, one or two pool halls, and Bennie's. No sign of Curly. Any other given day, he would've started planning the beat-down he was going to administer when he caught up to his little brother, but today there was just that feeling that something wasn't right. But when was anything ever really right with Curly?

He turned his attention to Hazel and the smell of shampoo in her hair, and turned his car towards Buck's.

* * *

She had changed her clothes and left her hair down. That was the second thing he noticed when he met Hazel in the parking lot at Buck's. The first thing was that she was waiting in the parking lot.

"Two-Bit in there?" Tim asked through the open window of his car.

"Yeah, and I didn't feel like a cat fight. He's with one of the others," she paused, a little amused with herself for calling them that. "I started to go in, but then some dude on the steps asked me if I was Two-Bit's cousin."

"What'd you tell him?"

"That Two-Bit was my father."

Tim smirked.

"That ought to stir up some trouble," he said.

"Not for me, man," Hazel replied. "I'm going to be in Kansas."

Tim jerked his head towards the passenger door of the car.

"This is true," he said.

She settled in and Tim peeled out of the parking lot, enjoying the spray of gravel his tires kicked up. He lit a cigarette and fiddled with the radio.

"Did you manage to find any other women to talk to?" Hazel asked. "So I'm not the only one in six months?"

"Just my sister."

"Is that why I'm here, then? To be your first woman in six months?"

Not knowing how she'd react if he just said 'yes', Tim told her: "Baby, you can be whatever you want."

Hazel laughed at that.

"Can I be President of the United States? Can I command the Army? That's a helluva line when you know I can't even open a bank account without my old man's permission."

"Do you really want to be President, though? I mean, somebody shot the last one."

"That's an ugly thing to say," she chided him, and the conversation died.

The road to Caney stretched out ahead of them in one straight line. There were probably five trees between Tulsa and the first town they'd reach- Ramona. At some point, before they got there, Hazel must've gotten to feeling bad about arguing with him because she turned and lay down on her back with her head in his lap. Tim took her hand and toyed with her fingers between his. Neither one of them said a word, which was fine by Tim, until he saw the Ramona on the horizon.

"I'm going to make a phone call," he told her. He pulled the car in beside a pay phone outside of a gas station. Hazel sat up, which made Tim kind of regret his decision, and let him out of the car.

Tim slipped his dimes into the pay phone and asked the operator for his mother's number. His step-father answered. It seemed that this crap luck was going to follow him all day.

"Where's Curly?" Tim asked.

Jerome responded as Angela had: "How the hell should I know?"

"He hasn't been home?"

"I ain't seen him."

Tim hung up the phone. He turned his head and squinted up and down the road, as if he expected to see his brother come up from a ditch or out from behind a billboard. When neither happened, he got back in the car.

"What's the matter?" Hazel asked.

"Nothing," he told her.

"You want to go back?"

"Last fuckin' thing I want."

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"But _should we_ go back?"

Tim shook his head. He draped his arm across the back of the seat and curled a lock of her hair around his fingers. Then he put the car back in drive and continued on their way to Caney.


	6. Chapter 6

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders.

**Dropdown**

Six-

Kevin Mitchell was stupid, but he wasn't _that_ stupid. He knew- for damn sure- that Two-Bit Mathews was not the father of the tall, dark-haired girl who had come up the steps of Buck's right before six, and then abruptly turned around and went back to her car when he spoke to her. Kevin watched the girl until Tim Shepard came along- who knew he was out of the joint?- and picked her up. Then, Kevin went inside.

He found Two-Bit leaned over a pool table in the back.

"Where's my sister?" Kevin asked.

"Little girl's room."

"I met your cousin."

"Did ya? She's a pistol, ain't she?"

"You got yourself kind of a fucked-up family, Mathews."

Two-Bit who had been lining up his shot, stiffened in the shoulders just a little.

"Why do you say that?" He asked.

"Well, you said she was your cousin, but she said you're her dad. Trying to wrap my head around how that even works."

"Keep you entertained all night, that will," Two-Bit said.

"How about you just explain it to me?"

"Explain what?"

Now Kathy was back. She stood between Two-Bit at the pool table and her brother, hands on her hips. They couldn't stand one another- Two-Bit and Kevin- and the both of them together in a room and talking was most likely going to lead to them out in the parking lot throwing punches.

"Two-Bit's odd family."

Kathy shrugged.

"Yeah, his dad ain't worth shit."

Kevin said, "Must run in the family."

"Now that's a little much, Kevin," Two-Bit said. He straightened up to his full height and looked Kevin in the eye.

"So, explain it to me," Kevin said. "Better yet, explain it to my sister."

"How many times do I have to say? Explain what?"

Kathy was getting mad, but she wasn't sure yet who she was mad at.

"Kevin met my cousin outside," Two-Bit told her. "She dropped me off 'cause my car's acting up. My cousin's kind of a smart-ass, and she told him I was her dad."

Kathy pressed her lips together. She looked up at her brother.

"What'd this cousin look like? Taller than me? Dark hair? Lookin' like the cat that swallowed the canary for no damned reason at all?"

Kevin nodded.

"That's the one."

Two-Bit set the pool cue on table, preparing to fend off the blow that was no doubt coming. He'd broken enough of Buck's pool cues in previous fights; he figured maybe he'd spare this one.

Then an odd thing happened.

Kathy said, "Oh, that cousin," and shrugged at her brother.

Two-Bit must have looked as baffled as Kevin was because Kevin stood there looking at him for a second before he grumbled, "Whatever the fuck…" and wandered off. Two-Bit turned to Kathy, and considered picking up the cue again for protection.

"Well, that was kind of you," he said.

"Shut up. I only said it so that I could have a go at you myself. Hazel, I'm guessing?"

"She dropped me off. She let me borrow her car to go down to Mac this morning and get Shepard."

"Did she? And why did you have to go after Shepard?"

"Nobody else was gonna."

"And that doesn't tell you anything, Two-Bit? I don't know which one of them is more slippery- Tim or Hazel. God, they about belong together."

Two-Bit frowned. Funny that Tim was nowhere to be seen around the bar on his first night back from down south and that Hazel had blown Two-Bit off when he asked if he should call her.

He shrugged it off. Whatever was going on, it seemed like it had worked out in his favor.

"Well, I don't see either of them around here now, baby," he said to Kathy. "Just you and me tonight."

"Just you, you mean. I don't like that girl. Sounds like you need some time alone to think about how badly you need her in your life."

And she turned and walked away. Two-Bit watched her go to her brother and poke him- most likely asking for- more likely demanding- a ride home. His mind rattled around the possibilities of Christine or Lyla, but then he figured he'd had about enough of girls for one day. He turned back to his game of pool, only to be distracted again moments later.

There was a commotion up front. Two-Bit set the cue down again and wove his way through the crowd to see what he assumed was a fight. Instead, he found Buck out from behind the bar and yelling at Curly Shepard to get his ass out, and Curly sputtering and wheezing that he needed to find Tim.

Two-Bit stepped between them. He gave Buck a look that sent Buck scurrying, and then gave Curly a shove towards the door.

"What's up, little Shepard?" He asked. Curly hated it when the boys called him that. "I drove your brother up from Mac this morning. Dropped him at your ma's place."

"Yeah, I must've just missed him while I was being kidnapped."

"What are you babbling about?"

"Billy Simon," Curly said. "He picked me up at school. Well, I got in with him 'cause I was cuttin' out, and...Jesus, he took me out by the salvage yard and put a gun to my head. Said I was going to get a message to Tim for him."

"Shit," Two-Bit said. "I guess the first messengers didn't get the job done."

"What first messengers?"

"The ones who tried to pick him up from Mac."

Curly frowned, as though he was somewhat disappointed that he wasn't the first messenger.

Two-Bit asked, "So, how did you get here?"

"Ran like hell. He let me go, but he still had the gun, and he was laughing about it. I sorta expected he was going to shoot me in the back. So, do you know where Tim is or don't you?"

Two-Bit shook his head.

"Not since I dropped him off, but it turns out my plans for the evening just sort of went down the crapper. You want to drive around and look for him?"

Curly nodded, still out of breath.

Two-Bit picked an abandoned bottle of Grain Belt from off of the bar and went out the door. Curly was right behind him.

* * *

"Hey, Romeo, what's my name again?"

Hazel had Tim's chin gripped between her thumb and forefinger and was aiming his face down towards hers.

"Juliet," he answered.

She rolled her eyes.

"You keep looking over my shoulder like you expecting the Grim Reaper to come through that door. I'm starting to get a little offended that I can't seem to keep your attention."

"Well, the Grim Reaper would be a hell of a sight…" Although, at this point not really surprising, as far as Tim was concerned.

Hazel frowned. She let go of his chin and draped her arm across Tim's shoulder. They were dancing- barely- in the middle of the floor in a bar in Caney called The Line. For "state line", Tim figured. They'd each had a beer and were splitting a second. Hazel held the bottle in her other hand. Tim could feel it on the back of his neck.

He guessed he couldn't blame her for being irritated. They'd sat in a booth and drank their beers and got a little silly. When Tim came back from getting the second bottle, he slid in on her side of the booth and put his arm around her shoulders. Then he kissed her and she kissed him back. Then he put his hand on her knee and started to move it up her skirt and she put on the brakes.

She wasn't real serious about it. Or maybe she was very serious. She suggested they go somewhere else and not do this in a public bar. Maybe they should head back to Tulsa. That got Tim's mind stuck back on Tulsa.

He suggested they dance, but dancing wasn't keeping his thoughts contained quite as well as making out.

"Not that I'd know, maybe you're always like this, but I'd have to say you've been a little distracted since we stopped in Ramona."

Tim told her: "I can't find my brother. I called home, and he wasn't home yet. Something's just off."

"Did he know you were getting out?"

"I don't know. I talked to my step-dad this morning, but Curly was in school by then."

"Curly's your brother? How old is he?"

"Fifteen. Almost sixteen. I know- shit, when I was his age I used to run around on the street all night, but like I said…"

"Something's off. Yeah, all day's been off, if you ask me."

Tim nodded in agreement.

Hazel said, "We should go back."

"I'm sorry," Tim said. "I think I was getting to like you back there."

"You don't know a damned thing about me," Hazel replied. She took a last drink from the bottle of beer and handed it to Tim.

"I know you know Billy," Tim said. "What do you think he has to do with this shitty feeling I have?"

"I'd say if it's anything this side of nauseating, he's probably connected somehow."

Tim nodded. He polished off the beer and took Hazel's hand. He pulled her towards the door, leaving the empty bottle on the bar as he passed it.


	7. Chapter 7

SE Hinton owns the Outsiders.

**Dropdown**

Seven-

If he really thought about, Two-Bit had to admit that he didn't know much more about Hazel then where she lived, and that she didn't live with her dad and her brother because one was in the pen and the other was working his way back to it. He had always assumed she was the same age as him, but now he couldn't remember ever asking or being told. He didn't know where she was from- not from Tulsa, or how she got to Tulsa or why she stayed. She had a mother- but didn't everybody? She said her dad had taken off and her mom had replaced him with tent revival meetings.

Two-Bit concluded that he really knew more about Hazel's mom then he did about Hazel. That Hazel had a whole other life that didn't include him hadn't bothered him before, but somehow it was bothering him now that her life seemed to include Tim Shepard.

"You ain't sayin' anything," Curly piped up from next to him in the front seat.

"Neither are you," Two-Bit said. "Some might say it'd take an act of God to make that happen."

"Who were the other messengers?"

"Dunno. Two guys Billy sent down to McAlester that looked like they blended in with the rodeo."

"Were they there to deliver a message or were they there to kill him?"

"Kill him, I'd guess. When I started talking to them, I guess they figured they were made and gave up."

Curly sighed.

"Tim has a gun, but I took it out of his car. It's in my locker."

"What the hell did you do that for?"

"Couldn't rightly tell you now. I guess I just wanted to shoot some cans with it, and then I forgot it when I was sneaking out of detention. Sure wish I had it now."

Two-Bit shook his head.

"I don't. If Billy didn't shoot at you, there's no reason to be shooting back."

"You said he sent someone to shoot my brother."

"Yeah, and your brother will take care of it."

"No, he won't. Not now because his gun's in my locker."

_Jesus Christ_, Two-Bit thought to himself. He asked Curly:

"What exactly was the message that Billy said to send to Tim?"

Curly squirmed.

"It was weird," he said.

"Weird how?"

"Weird like he touched me...like held my face in his hands, but kind of gentle. He rubbed my cheek. He said to tell Tim he could take good care of me and Angela in his absence. He said Tim had better show or the next one of us he was going to put to work was Angel. Gave me the creeps."

It gave Two-Bit the creeps too. He'd always figured the Shepards for being maybe a step or two down on the evolutionary ladder from himself. They were a different kind of criminal. They had guns, first of all. They didn't just steal things like Two-Bit did, and they sold the things they stole. They had an operation going that seemed complicated from the outside looking in, and yet it never seemed to get them anywhere. Maybe it never got them anywhere because the money they made was going to someone else.

"Maybe we shouldn't be looking for Tim," Two-Bit said. "Maybe we should be looking for your sister. Just check in. Tell her to stay put."

Curly smirked.

"Good luck. The only one she listens to is Tim, and barely. _We'd_ about have to kidnap her, and keep her hogtied in the trunk."

"Then maybe that's what we'll do. Christ, man, I got a little sister. I think maybe I could put a bullet in Billy for implying doing to her what he did with yours."

"But the gun's in my locker," Curly reminded him.

"Yeah, you keep saying that. I've broken into Will Rogers before. I betcha I can break into Central. Hell, maybe I'll make a tour of it and break into Sacred Heart while I'm at it."

* * *

Hazel thought that Tim was driving too fast, but she didn't say so until he blew right through Ramona without slowing down.

"You might want to consider the terms of your parole," she suggested.

"How's that?" Tim remembered that he hadn't checked in with his parole officer yet. He'd forgotten all about that in the chaos of the day.

"What happens if you get pulled over?"

"I get a ticket, same as anyone."

"There's nothing in this car that would give them cause to haul you in if they searched it?"

"Can't search it without a warrant."

"They can if you're on parole."

She was right, and Tim knew it. Still, it wasn't like some lone HP out roaming the prairie was going to know who he was and whether he was on parole or not.

"Only way they'd know is if you told 'em, sis," he said. He glanced over at Hazel.

"Does that strike you as something I would do? How do you know they wouldn't have cause to hold me too?"

Tim grinned.

"Do they?" He asked.

"In Tulsa," she told him. "But, out here, they wouldn't know that unless you told them."

And so they were even. Tim took the hint and slowed down some. It was getting dark, and he could see the light pollution from the north side of Tulsa up ahead.

He asked Hazel, "Anything in that purse of yours that your conscience would like to tell me about?"

"No weapons, if that's what you mean."

"That might have actually been useful. What else then? A little grass? A little coke? Not enough to make it worth sending you to trial, but enough that they might hold you overnight if they were to pull us over and search us?"

"Something like that," Hazel said.

"So which is it?" Tim asked. "Or is it both?"

"Both."

"And you weren't going to share?"

"You ain't the type. I've heard about you. Dope is the one illegal thing the Shepard gang doesn't have its fingers in."

"Just smack. I got no problem with any of the rest. That it, then? Minor misdemeanor amounts of coke and weed? What's your warrant for?"

"I stole something."

"Something bigger than a bread basket?" Tim asked, grinning a little. "Is it felony level?"

"I don't think so," Hazel said. "Not unless it's some kind of priceless antique that I wasn't aware of. And I stole it from Eleanor Simon, so the charges may have been dropped by now, although I tend to think not. Billy would've told Eleanor to drop the charges to keep any scrutiny off of him, but if that ship had already sailed and the cops know about Billy, then they might have kept the warrant open as an excuse to grab me sometime and question me about him."

"And you never thought of sharing any of this with me earlier?"

"Like between when you had your tongue in my mouth and when you had your hand up my skirt?"

"No, like before then. Like maybe earlier this afternoon when you told about the work you did for Billy."

Hazel shook her head. Of course she had thought about it, but she didn't tell because it made her sound stupid. She knew what she was in the machine of the Tulsa underworld: she was a woman, she was small, and she had no one to speak of except her mother who may or may not have cut her loose by now because she'd strayed from the flock. She was alone, which made her expendable. Her only power came from holding her cards close to her chest.

She'd stolen a ring off of Eleanor's dressing table to send a message, but she'd done it out of anger, and acting out of emotion always had consequences. Eleanor's reaction to the client's pushing Hazel around had been quite different from Billy's. In fact, Eleanor had chastised Billy for being protective. She'd suggested that Hazel might be more useful to them if she could be persuaded to go further with the clients.

Hazel had heard all of this from the Simon's bedroom where she was applying make-up to the bruises on her neck where the client had grabbed her by the throat and held her against the wall. Hazel had looked down at the dressing table, and there was the ring. Billy had bought the ring for Eleanor just that past week with money they all knew Hazel had made for them. In a fit of anger, Hazel took it. She knew Eleanor would know. What she didn't expect was that Eleanor would go to the police. Either the ring held greater sentimental value for Eleanor than Hazel had anticipated, or it was worth more than she thought.

Or Eleanor was playing her own game, one that Hazel had not seen coming.

She tended, in retrospect, to think it was the latter.


	8. Chapter 8

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders and the Shepard family.

**Dropdown**

Eight-

Two-Bit told Curly to time him, but Curly got distracted by a rat coming and going under a dumpster, and he forgot what time the dashboard clock was at when Two-Bit slipped inside an unlocked window in the hall next to the shop classroom behind Will Rogers. So, Two-Bit might have been inside the school for five minutes or fifteen when Tim's car pulled up next to Two-Bit's and Tim wrapped on the window.

Curly was rummaging around in the glove compartment. The knock on the window sent him scrambling.

"Don't hurt yourself," Tim grumbled as he opened the car door, allowing Curly to tumble out into the parking lot.

"Jesus, Tim!"

Tim reached down and gave Curly a hand up. He clapped his brother on the back and then took a step away from him, signaling that any further show of affection wasn't going to happen.

"Two-Bit said you were out," Curly said. "Said he drove down and got you this morning."

"Yeah, it would appear that he was telling you the truth," Tim replied. "What the hell are you doing here? Didn't get enough school today?"

Curly let his head drop. He looked away from Tim, and that was the first time he noticed Hazel sitting in Tim's car.

"Who's she?"

"A former associate of Billy Simon's."

"Tim…" Curly stopped for a moment to choose his words. Questioning his brother on anything always brought trouble down on him. Questioning his brother on his choice of women typically resulted in a biting monologue about how Curly couldn't catch himself a girl if he had a net and so what did he know?

"_Former_ associate, fool," Tim repeated. "As am I, at this point."

"Me too, then. He put a gun to my head this morning."

Tim nodded, as though this didn't come as a surprise to him. He didn't show any outward sign of being worried about Curly's safety. Inside, he was seething, but he knew better than to show it. Curly fed off of the emotions of others. Any show of anger from Tim was bound to bring on an ill-planned and stupid display of vengence from Curly. Tim asked him again:

"Why are you here?"

"Ain't she one of Two-Bit's girlfriends?" Curly asked.

Now Tim was sure that Curly was dodging something. He shifted on his feet and began patting down his pockets for a cigarette.

"Ask her that, fucker," he said. "Ask her exactly like that...if she's one of his girls...I dare you. Right after you tell me what the fuck it is you're doing here. I'm guessing Two-Bit is here too? When you're done questioning Hazel about the nature of her relationship with Two-Bit, you can check his answers against hers. It'll be fun."

Curly's eyes brightened somewhat. That did sound fun to him. The light went right out of them again when the shop classroom fire exit opened and shut behind them and the alarm went off.

"Hey, Timmy," Two-Bit shouted over the sound of the alarm. "Fancy meeting you here. Did you come for this?"

He held out the .357.

Tim raised his eyebrows. Otherwise, his face was stoney. The sound of the alarm was rattling him something awful though. It reminded him, now, of the lockdowns at Mac. If there was a lockdown at Mac, it meant that someone had taken a beating and someone else was about to at the hands of the guards.

Curly squirmed.

Two-Bit said, "How's about we discuss it around the corner, maybe at the park by Curtis'? Crutchfield? I'd say we have about three minutes before things get a little hot around here."

Tim nodded in agreement and reached for his gun. Two-Bit pointed towards Hazel, still in the front seat of Tim's car, with his chin.

"Trade ya," he said.

Tim smirked at Two-Bit. He should have expected jealousy. That Two-Bit made girls jealous either never dawned on him or he didn't care. Perhaps he found something useful in it. He didn't wear jealousy well himself, though. Since they were all going to the same place, Tim figured that Two-Bit wouldn't be able to do much more than cuss Hazel out in the car on their way, and that was nothing she couldn't handle.

He turned back to his car. As he slid in behind the wheel, he said to her:

"You're riding with Two-Bit, sis. Let Curly in."

"What the hell…?"

"I found my gun," Tim said. "Two-Bit just brought it out of the school."

"You were missing a gun? Does Two-Bit still have it?"

"No, baby, I have it. You think I'd let you get in a car with him and a gun? One of you wouldn't make it across the parking lot."

She shot him an icy look and mumbled something like _you're goddamned right_, and got out of the car.

* * *

"You and me's gonna talk about that gun," Tim told Curly as soon as he got his door shut. "We're going to talk about it later. Right now, tell me about Billy."

Curly slouched down in the seat. He wished to God that Tim would share his cigarette, if only because taking a drag would give him a split second more to think.

"He picked me up," Curly said. "He was waiting here when I got out of school. Drove me out to the salvage yard. Got all creepy on me. Told me he was going to put me and Angel to work in your absence."

"He said that about Angel?"

"Yeah, what'd he mean in your absence? You going back down south?"

"He means when I'm dead. Listen to me, Curly, you and me both know more about Billy and his operation than he's comfortable with. He was cool with me being locked up, but me getting out surprised him. He must've figured he could rattle you into keeping quiet until I got out. We got about six blocks here to figure out what his game is, and which side of it Hazel is on."

"Two-Bit's girl?"

"Yeah," Tim slowed down to cross the railroad tracks. The whole car rattled. North of the tracks, they both relaxed a little.

"You think she's playing you...or Two-Bit...or someone?"

"She's definitely playin' someone. I get the feeling it ain't me, but...shit…"

Curly smirked. He sat up a little straighter in the seat, shaking his head.

"But you like her. You're all sweet on her, and now you can't tell what she's up to. You bangin' her yet?"

Tim punched Curly's shoulder.

"I've only been out of the joint since noon, dumbass. Can't say it's been enough time to get to know her well."

"But you'd have had time to bang her," Curly said.

"Shut up. We had a couple of drinks, and she told me some shit, and now...Shit, she needs to keep her head down. So does Two-Bit. If we're going to get out of this, we'll need them to play nice with each other and fly low on the radar. Billy don't know that we know her, and he don't know Two-Bit at all. Christ...we got five minutes, anyhow. Tell me about the gun, stupid."

* * *

"You look nice," Two-Bit said to Hazel. "You get all dolled up like that for Timmy?"

"Shut up and drive."

"I mean, I get it, Haze. You're a free agent. I'm a free agent. Let's just said I'm concerned...as your friend...about your choice of company this evening. I mean, Tim's...shit Tim's fresh out of the joint and- according to Curly- people are trying to kill him."

Hazel smiled and shook her head.

"Yeah, I'm aware."

"How aware are you of the whole Billy Simon situation?"

"I'm more aware of my situation with him."

"You have a situation with him, too?" Two-Bit squirmed in his seat. He leaned his forearm across the steering wheel so that he could turn to face her. "I'm starting to feel a little left out here. How come I don't have a situation with Billy?"

"I'd say you're going to have one pretty quick here, if you don't ditch me and Tim and his little brother."

Hazel was frowning. Up ahead the red lights signaling an oncoming train were beginning to flash. Two-Bit cursed and gunned the engine to try to outrun the descending crossrails.

Hazel put her hand on his arm.

"Stop," she said. "Just stop at the crossing."

Now Two-Bit frowned. Against his better judgement, he stopped the car. The train flew by and made the car shake as though by a strong wind.

Hazel picked up her purse from the floor and jerked up on the door handle.

"Go home, Two-Bit," she said.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to the park to meet Tim. Go home. You got nothing to do with Billy. Let's keep it that way."

"The fuck I will. Get back here," Two-Bit said. He took a swipe at her arm and missed. She could have made a run for it, but the train still stood between her and Crutchfield Park. Two-Bit got out of the car on the other side and caught up with her.

"If I got to pick you up and put you in the trunk, Haze…"

She turned back to him and gestured at his car.

"There's already three cars backed up behind you. How's that going to look?"

"Just get back in the car."

She shook her head. The last car on the train flew past, and the signal bell stopped. The cross rails began to rise. Hazel turned again and started to jog across the tracks. One of the cars behind Two-Bit's laid on its horn. Two-Bit gave the driver the finger.

A window came down and a head popped out.

"You gonna move your car, or am I going to need to give you a shove, asshole?"

Two-Bit looked toward Hazel disappearing down the street. He shook his head and went back to his car. Any other day, he would've sat in it for a long a minute to mess with the other driver, but today was not that day.


	9. Chapter 9

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders.

A/N: drug use to go along with the usually adult language.

**Dropdown**

Nine-

Hazel hurried up Utica to Independence, which was exactly the way she should have been heading, assuming either Tim or Two-Bit had eyes on her. A block down Independence Avenue, she ducked into a church parking lot. She went around to the back of the church and sat on the steps, in the dark and out of sight.

She opened her purse and sifted through the contents with her fingers. She kept her coke in a small, plastic vile that had once held pencil led. She popped the cap off of it, tapped a line out on the back of her hand and inhaled. Right away, she wished she had gone for the weed. She snapped the cap back on the vile, dropped it in her purse, and drummed her fingers on the wooden step.

She knew better than to believe that she could return the ring to Eleanor Simon and all would be forgiven. She'd taken it a step too far for that. Eleanor and Billy were kind of people you never turned your back on, but they expected to be able to trust everyone in their employ. The more she thought about it, the more her interactions with Eleanor worried her- how Nellie looked at her, little digs she made about Hazel being too scrawny or too dark. She had made herself an enemy to Nellie long before she stole the ring, she was sure of it.

Or maybe it was the coke playing tricks on her.

She'd liked the stuff once. It kept her on her toes at the track, and when she was trying to dodge Two-Bit or whoever she was trying to dodge to be with Two-Bit. If she wasn't moving, though, it just made her mind race. She heard every sound. She felt like a mouse in a cage.

She heard the footsteps too late for her to run. They had turned the corner around the back of the church and slowed up when the owner saw her. Hazel rubbed her nose out of habit and peeked around the bannister.

"Didn't take you for the prayin' kind," Tim said.

"Yeah, you got that right."

"Unless you were praying to the white powder gods. You got any of that left?"

Hazel nodded. She opened her purse again, found the vile, and handed it to Tim.

"Where's the gun?" She asked him.

"Take it easy. I can bump up and still handle a gun."

"So you have it."

Tim tapped out a short line on the back of his hand and snorted it.

"Don't worry about it," he said, and then. "I guess you ain't in the frame of mind to not be worried, ain't you?"

"Tim, where's your brother?"

"He's cool. I left him with some friends. They're good babysitters. You got yours worried silly, little girl."

Hazel shrugged.

"I told Two-Bit to go home. Told him he wasn't in this yet, so he might as well not be."

"And then you took off on him, to his dismay."

She nodded.

Tim stretched his arms above him and cracked his neck. Then he sat down next to Hazel. He handed her back her vile of coke.

"Next time I ask, don't give it to me," he told her. "Christ, I'm a lightweight now. From being locked up, I guess."

"Yeah, so are you really that addled or are you avoiding my question?"

Tim reached behind him and produced the gun from his belt. Hazel shifted away from it. Tim took that as a good sign, he figured, that she was still afraid of something.

"Is it loaded?"

He flipped the cylinder open and showed her.

"How long since you fired it?"

Tim grinned and stretched his legs out in front of him. He closed the cylinder and put the gun back in his pants.

"I've never fired it," he told her.

"Bullshit."

"Not at all. Never had to. Held it to a few guy's faces, but I never did fire it."

"How do you know…? What if it jams or something?"

"I've cleaned it," Tim said and shrugged. "I'm not completely irresponsible."

Hazel had to smile at that. Then she sighed and told him:

"I don't have a plan. I think I'm just up a creek. Nellie never did like me. Thought Billy'd taken a shine to me, I think. I think she's trying to get him sent up, too. Doesn't like the way he's running things anymore. Either way, they don't know that we know each other. I was thinking maybe I should just disappear."

"And where would you be doing that?"

"Well, if I told you…"

"Don't trust me?"

"Don't trust anybody. It's beginning to look like I can't trust myself."

Tim leaned back against the stairs. He propped his elbow up behind her and laid his hand on her back. He half-expected her to shake him off, but she leaned into his arm and looked down at him.

"Jesus," she said. "Half a day ago, I didn't know you. Now we're ruining one another's lives."

"My sister says I have that effect on women."

"What'd Two-Bit say? He met you at the park, right?"

"Said you bailed out, told him to go home, but that you were headed to meet me. When you didn't show, I figured you couldn't be far. I told him you'd dogged us and to take my little brother to our friend's house- mutual friends of me and Two-Bit's."

"Do you have a plan?"

"If I did, it just went skipping merrily out of my head. Shit, talk about fairy dust. I'm sure it involved the gun and probably my triumphant return to Mac in pretty short order."

"I don't want you to do that," Hazel said.

"What if I don't care?"

"You take good care of your brother and sister. You should be here with them."

"What- so you're going to do it? You ever hold a gun before, sis? Because you don't strike me as being all that familiar with them."

"Maybe there's another way," Hazel told him. "I still have the ring. What if I put it back, but put it back in a different place...like a place where Billy'd find it and think Nellie had made the whole thing up? Maybe they'd take each other out, you know? Dog eat dog."

Tim smiled. He pulled her face down closer to his.

"You're one evil, little woman, you know? God, I think I like you. You scare the hell out of me, and the only other woman who does that is my mom."

He kissed her and she kissed him back. He paused for a moment to look at her face. She wasn't any older than him and Two-Bit, he guessed, but she'd lived more on Tim's side of the law. An eighteen/ nineteen year old girl with cocaine in her purse had maybe turned some tricks. Another girl probably gave it to her the first time to loosen her up, and then she got to where she always just felt better if she had some on her. Maybe she'd been turned out of the house. Maybe she'd taken off from the father and the brothers. She knew how to take care of herself, though, and she didn't expect anyone else to step in and do it.

"Where are you from?" He asked her.

"What difference does it make?"

"Don't make any difference. I'm making conversation."

"Funny- I thought you were making time. I'm not sure we have time for either."

* * *

Tim drove Hazel to the Simon's house. He wouldn't give her the gun. She'd never held one before, so she was probably a terrible shot, he told her. Truth was he didn't trust her not to just shoot Billy if she saw him.

It was a church night. Eleanor ought to be gone, which left only Billy to contend with. Tim said he'd keep an eye out for Billy.

It was where to leave the ring that kept them stuck sitting in the car, bickering back and forth, stopping now and then to kiss, and then arguing some more. It was decided, by Hazel, that she would leave the ring in the chest freezer in the garage. Eleanor for certain came and went getting things from the freezer, but Billy kept his fish there, too, after he'd cleaned them. Tim agreed it was a good place- Hazel wouldn't have to go into the actual house. She'd just have to get into the garage.

"I'm gonna walk with you to the end of the block," he told her, "then I'm going to head up the alley behind the house. If I see him moving in the kitchen window, I'll stop him."

"Stop him how?"

"I'll throw something at the window. He'll come out in the yard to have a look. If you hear the door, you take off out the front. I ain't going to shoot him."

"Leave the gun here. Leave it in the car."

Tim shook his head.

Hazel sighed in frustration. She tried, in a last desperate, attempt to make him trust her just a little:

"I'm from Texas," she told him. "West Texas, almost New Mexico. Little squirrely town you've never heard of."

"Try me."

"Adrian."

"You're right. Never heard of it."

"I really don't want to go back there," Hazel said. "So let's do this right."


	10. Chapter 10

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders.

**Dropdown**

Ten-

Darry Curtis was remembering being a kid, being out in the country with his dad, and chasing grasshoppers while his father combed the prairie looking for pheasants. The grasshoppers would pop up and down in the tall grass. Sometimes it seemed like they'd been catapulted- their jumps were so wild and uncoordinated, it didn't seem possible that the creature had put any kind of thought into where it was jumping or why.

He was thinking about this as he sat in his chair and watched his brother Sodapop, and Two-Bit, and Curly Shepard bounce around the living room. Soda and Two-Bit's neverending movement was so routine that he could go for hours without it bothering him, but Curly added to the mix was wearing on him. Soda had been delighted when Tim had come in- several minutes after Two-Bit- and deposited Curly on the couch. Soda didn't particularly like Curly, but Tim's showing up and then abruptly leaving again meant there was a conflict brewing, and Soda was itching to know what it was about.

Whatever it was, Two-Bit was in on it, and he was mad about it. He'd shot Tim a look that would've turned any other guy's blood to ice, but Tim didn't even acknowledge that Two-Bit was there. Curly was mad as well; he didn't appreciate being left behind and left out of whatever shit Two-Bit and Tim had stirred up.

"Sit the hell down," Two-Bit said to Curly.

Curly was leaning on the doorframe looking out across the lawn.

"He ain't coming back for you," Two-Bit wheedled.

"Ain't coming back for you either," Curly snapped. "From the looks of things, neither is your girl."

"She ain't my girl, so don't worry about it."

"Ain't worried about. Looks to me like she's got Tim to worry over her now."

Two-Bit stood up quickly enough to make Curly jump.

"Two-Bit…" Darry said.

"What girl?" Soda asked. He figured he understood conflict over girls well enough.

Two-Bit didn't answer. He sat back down again.

Curly was happy to impart any wisdom he possessed on the subject:

"Her name's Hazel. She's a looker. Real tuff chick. I thought she was Two-Bit's girl, but I think she jumped ship."

Darry rolled his eyes. He knew Hazel, or knew of her. That was pretty much the way Two-Bit described how everyone knew her: they didn't really know her with any sort of depth, they just saw her around. Two-Bit, it seemed, had seen more of her than some people. For his part, Darry knew her to see her, agreed that she was worth a second look, but didn't trust any girl who would tolerate Two-Bit for any period of time. Either she was was plain vacuous or willfully ignorant. That she would float back and forth between Two-Bit and Tim implied that she was a little crazy.

"She's got coke on her," Soda offered.

"What?" Darry said. This added a new and exciting element of his long list of things to worry about.

"Don't she, Two-Bit? You said…"

Two-Bit glared at Sodapop.

"I know what I said. I don't need you to remind me, or be telling the whole round world."

Darry lay his newspaper down. He said to Two-Bit, "You ever done it?"

"Yep," was all Two-Bit said. He stared straight ahead and avoided Darry's eyes.

"You got any on you?"

"Nope, it was hers."

"You ever bring it here, you ever bring her here, you ever give him any…" He nodded towards Soda. "I'll bust your fool head open, ya hear?"

"Loud and clear."

"I like her," Curly said to no one.

"I don't fuckin' care what you think," Two-Bit told him. "No one cares what you think. If Tim did, he wouldn't have left you here."

Darry could tell that wounded Curly. He said, "Two-Bit…" again, and hoped they'd all just shut up. No such luck.

"Do you know where they're going, Little Shepard?" Two-Bit asked.

"Why should I tell you?"

"Because if you don't, I'm going to toss you out into the yard and clean your clock."

"Yeah, and then Tim'll…"

"Stop," Darry said. He stood up, and the rest of them became still. "Two-Bit, kitchen. Curly, don't you make a move."

Darry went to the kitchen without looking back to see if Two-Bit was following. When he turned around, sure enough Two-Bit was there. Darry leaned back against the refrigerator. Two-Bit hopped up and sat on the counter, like maybe the conversation they were about to have wasn't all that serious.

"Once," he said. "I did it once, and I didn't like it. It was hers."

"I think we covered that already. I want to know what the hell else is going on. Why am I sitting on Curly Shepard? How long has Tim been out of McAlester- eight whole hours? Should I be expecting the cops on my doorstep wanting to know where he's at?"

Two-Bit shook his head.

"No idea. You know of a guy who fixes shit at the track? Billy Simon? Tim and Hazel both have something going with him. I don't know what the deal is, but it seems to have gone sour. They both seemed to feel that I didn't need to be involved further, and you know how Tim is about Curly."

Darry nodded. How Tim was about Curly was one of the very few reasons he tolerated Tim at all. They understood each other on the subject of younger siblings.

"Is Tim holding?"

"Dope or heat?"

"Sounds like the girl holds onto the dope for the both of you."

"He's got a gun."

Darry rolled his eyes.

"So, whatever he's up to, he's headed back down south. It ain't going to end well, in any case. Exactly how long am I supposed to be holding on to his little brother?"

Two-Bit shrugged.

"I'd cut him loose right now if it was up to me."

"I know you would, and it ain't. If I called the cops, and sent them to this Simon guy's house, who's going to go down? All of them, or is Simon the real catch?"

"Couldn't tell you," Two-Bit said, shaking his head. "You put a lot more faith in the cops than I ever would. Tim's on parole and he's got a gun, so he'd be done for. Haze...Jesus, I'd like to say I knew, but I don't. She's holding, but I never knew her to have enough on her to add up to more than misdemeanor jail time."

Darry hmmm'ed.

"Well, maybe when it all comes tumbling down, I can stick her with Curly. Does she strike you as the maternal type?"

"Not in the least," Two-Bit said.

* * *

Tim held Hazel's hand until they reached the mouth of the alley. He figured it gave the appearance to anyone watching that they were just a couple of kids out for a stroll.

"You go in and out," he told her. "You do it fast, and don't make a noise."

"I know how to open a freezer, Tim."

"If you hear him or see him, you get the hell out of there, and leave him to me."

"It'll take less than five minutes. In five minutes, meet me back at the car."

Tim wasn't used to anyone else giving the directives, least of all a girl. He let go of her hand and pinched her waist to let her know he thought she was being cute. She caught his meaning, and it didn't go down well.

"All's I need is the ring," she said. "Why don't you hold my purse?"

"The one with the cocaine in it? I'd love to."

Tim took Hazel's purse and set it down next to a telephone pole. Hazel whispered, "Goddamnit…" under her breath. She left him standing, with a little smirk on his face, at the edge of the alley.

Tim walked towards the Simon house. When he reached it, he hopped the fence and crouched down in the shadow just out of reach of the light that poured from the dining room window. Billy was sitting at the table, and he was talking to someone. Tim crept closer to see who was in the kitchen.

Eleanor Simon stood at her kitchen sink. Tim shook his head. Never trust the Bible-beaters. They all talk a good game, but it's all at their convenience. Church night is whatever night they want to be church night.

Billy said something to Eleanor and she put her dishrag down. She turned and headed towards the breezeway. Tim cursed under his breath. This is where it all went to hell he figured- when he went and did something for the girl that he wasn't sure she'd do for him. He sprinted towards the back door, waited until he heard Eleanor, and then knocked.

Eleanor opened the door. She frowned at him.

"What are you doing here?"

"Got out this morning. Heard Billy wanted a word."

"What are you doing in my backyard?"

"I'm on parole, ma'am. Thought maybe it wouldn't look good for Billy if anyone saw me from the street."

"Ain't you a courteous thing?" She said, and stepped aside to let him in. She yelled past him, "Bill, one of those Shepard boys is here."

Tim snorted. She would have to tip Billy off, give him time to grab some sort of weapon and meet Tim at the ready.

Then she said to Tim, "I'll be right back. Do you want a beer, son? I was going to grab one from the garage."

"Didn't know you imbibed," Tim said. "What with your religion and all."

"I don't, but my husband does. I figure- at some point- his business with the Almighty is his and his alone."

Tim nodded.

"Mine, too, I guess," he said. "No, thank you, ma'am. I won't be staying long."

Eleanor, again, headed towards the door to the garage. Tim hoped that Hazel had heard her announce Tim's arrival to Billy, or maybe that Hazel was already in and out. He checked that the gun was hidden beneath his jacket, and went into Simon's kitchen.


	11. Chapter 11

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders.

Happy Valentine's Day!

**Dropdown**

Eleven-

Hazel heard Eleanor shout to Bill that one of those Shepard boys was here. She backed away from the freezer, but rather than dart out the side door of the garage, she knelt down on the other side of Billy's car and waited. When Eleanor appeared, Hazel waited for her to close the door. Then she stood up.

Eleanor startled and turned around.

"My word, girl. You about scared the life out of me."

"Did I? Gonna make the next part real easy then."

Hazel crossed her arms across her chest. It wasn't an even match in her favor. Eleanor was almost as tall and outweighed Hazel by fifty pounds. She hadn't reached the beer bottles yet, and so- as far as Hazel knew- she was unarmed.

"We're popular tonight, it seems," Eleanor said. "And y'all are popping out of the most unusual places. Do you know Tim Shepard?"

Hazel shrugged and shook her head.

"Can't say that I do. Should I?"

"I couldn't say what you should or shouldn't do. He's inside talking to Billy, though."

Hazel raised an eyebrow and hoped she wasn't giving away anything to Eleanor. _Stupid Tim_, she thought to herself. _Stupid boys. What white horse does he think he's riding in on?_

Eleanor said to her: "Funny thing. I thought we'd parted ways with you, little girl. You didn't seem happy in our employ the last time I saw you."

"Yeah? What told you that? The way I was shaking when I came in or the bruises all over me?"

"Seems to me like you weren't cut out for our line of work. I took you for a tougher sort of girl than that. I guess I was wrong."

"I guess," Hazel said and shrugged. "I brought you something, Nellie. Catch."

She tossed the ring towards Eleanor, who missed it in the half-light. It bounced off of the car and rolled beneath it. Eleanor smiled and shook her head at Hazel.

"Well, well, maybe you have more stones than I thought. Or you're just stupid. If I pulled a stunt like that I don't think I'd have come back to this house and chucked the thing at me."

"I'm a little confused about the whole thing myself. I woulda thought my little stunt would've brought down more heat on me than it did."

"I just didn't like the thing that much," Eleanor said.

"The ring or the big, dumb thing that gave it to you?"

Eleanor had a reply for that, but she was cut off by a dull thud coming from the outside of the house. She and Hazel both startled. Looking at Eleanor's face, Hazel realized that it was now more illuminated than it had been- by a revolving series of red and white lights. Eleanor's eyes narrowed.

"You stay right there, little girl. You run and I'll put them onto you like dogs. You showed up uninvited in my garage, remember."

She scurried back into the house. Hazel could hear her saying something to Billy, and then answering the front door. She backed up to the garage door and peeked out. There was a single police cruiser parked in front of the house. One officer had gone to the door, and another was walking around the side of the house with a flashlight in one hand and a gun in the other.

She heard a sound at the entry to the house from the garage. She turned.

Tim had his finger to his lips. He came up next to her so he could whisper.

"Cops. Where's the ring?"

"Rolled under the car."

"Leave it. That's good enough if they toss the place. I guess I'm going to have to part with this for the greater good, too."

He took the .357 out of his jeans and began wiping it down with the hem of his shirt.

"If I was Billy, where would I stash a stolen gun?"

"He's probably got a few stashed out here already."

Tim nodded. He quietly opened the car door and chucked the gun on the front seat. Hazel raised her hands as if to say _is that your grand plan_?

"Come on, baby, let's go."

Hazel shook her head.

"There's a cop around the side of the house. We can't go out the back."

"Yeah, we're going out the front. The other one's inside the house."

Tim pushed her ahead of him out to the driveway. They both stopped and looked around them. Seeing no one, they darted into the next yard. They ran through yards to the end of the block, and then slowed down, walking hand-in-hand again like a couple out enjoying the evening air.

"If the cops let them alone, we're still screwed," Hazel said when they had almost reached Tim's car.

"Well, then we weren't any worse off than when we started."

He opened the passenger door for her. She got in and before he shut it, he asked:

"You were going to kill her, weren't you?"

Hazel shrugged.

"Jesus, what kind of girl are you?"

"Scarier than your mom now, I'd guess."

Tim shut the door. He got in behind the wheel and started the car. He put it in gear and popped the lighter in.

"If we're going to see each other again, we got to agree on a few things," he told her.

"Who says we're going to see each other again?"

Tim smirked. "I said. And you said you weren't going back to Adelaide or wherever."

"Adrian."

"Yeah. So, I'm guessing I'll at least be seeing as much of you as Two-Bit does."

"I can't see Two-Bit wanting to see much more of me after this."

"Well, more than he does then."

"What do we need to agree on?"

Tim reached across her and opened the glove box. He pulled out a fresh pack of cigarettes, contemplating his list:

No more coke and no more weed- no more little things that could get them picked up and searched. No more emotional outbursts that resulted in stealing stuff- if they were going to steal stuff, it had to stuff they only intended to sell. No getting cuddly with creeps out at the track.

"That's all stuff that covers me," Hazel told him. "What's your end of this bargain?"

"I'm guessing my parole officer will have a hell of a list for me. Was going to start with that."

"Where are we going now?"

"Over to a friend's place. I left Curly there."

Hazel smiled- the idea that Tim had left Curly in safe hands appealed to her some. He just as well could have left him there, she supposed, because he was likely to screw up their plans, That Tim would rather have her at his side than his own brother, she figured wasn't going to sit well with Curly.

* * *

"Oh, the girl with the coke," Was how Darry Curtis greeted Hazel when Tim introduced her.

"You gonna bust _her_ head open, Darrel?" Two-Bit asked. "Or would you like me to do that, since she and I have a reporte?"

"Some reporte, if she just waltzed in here with Tim." Curly had to get his dig in. He felt safe enough doing it with Tim in the room.

Half his size and surrounded by guys who would back him up, Hazel still had no problem looking Darry in the eye.

"Do I need to leave?" She asked him.

"Are you holding?"

Hazel's eyes widened. She whirled around to look at Tim.

...Who said, "Fuck," and rubbed his eyes.

"What now?" Darry asked them.

"I was holding. In my purse," Hazel said. "Which we left in the alley behind Billy's house."

"I'm going back and gettin' it," Tim told her.

"The hell you are. There was a cop out back. If he hasn't found it by now, he'll find you."

"Well," Darry said. He sat back down in his chair, and because it was Darry- Sodapop and Curly sat down again as well. Two-Bit had remained sitting when Tim and Hazel came in.

Now, he leaned back against the arm of the couch and looked at Hazel.

"Your ID in it?" He asked.

"Of course it is."

Tim said, "What's your warrant for?"

"Jesus Christ," Darry muttered.

Hazel folded her arms across her chest, and turned towards Darry. When she spoke, she was talking to him:

"In Tulsa County, misdemeanor possession and possibly theft, although- the cops will find what I've been accused of stealing when they search Billy's garage." Then, she dropped her arms again- as if in defeat- and turned to Tim. She said, "Soliciting in Potter County, Texas and Elk City."

"What's that mean?" Curly asked.

"Means she fucked her way here from West Texas," Two-Bit said.

Hazel cocked an eyebrow and said to him, without turning away from Tim: "How'd you think I got so good at it?"

Darry stood up.

"Okay...holy Christ...What it means is she needs to get out of my house. I think y'all better start cutting your losses and figuring out who's about to get picked up and for what, and where other than my house you're going to be when that happens."

"How big is Elk City even? How the hell did you picked up there?" Two-Bit wondered aloud.

"It's little. Makes it tougher to lay low, especially if you're a new face in town," she told him. "I'm done for. Tim, you still have time to call your PO. If you do that, you're in the clear, right?"

"There's a chance in hell that they ain't found your purse."

"There's a pretty even chance that, if they did, Nellie thought up something else to pin on me."

Curly spoke up then. He'd been quiet since Hazel had owned up to the soliciting arrests, as if mulling over whether or not that made her more or less cool in his book. Now he said, in a quiet voice uncharacteristic of him:

"Tim, call your PO."

"Who asked you?"

Curly's eyes were pleading. Tim avoided looking at them. He was looking at Hazel, and she couldn't guess what he was thinking.

"Tim," she told him. "Call your PO."


	12. Chapter 12

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders.

ACROSS THE BOARD- A bet on a horse to win, place and show. If the horse wins, the player collects three ways; if second, two ways; and if third, one way, losing the win and place bets. (DRF)

**Dropdown**

Twelve-

"Baby, I think maybe it's time we entertain the idea that you ain't any good at this," Tim said to Hazel. He had asked for a word with her, and then looked to Darry for permission that he and Hazel could step into the kitchen for a minute. Darry had rolled his eyes and suggested that they go have a word in someone else's kitchen entirely, but had relented.

Hazel looked up at Tim, and shrugged. They were standing side by side, leaning up against the counter. Tim was turning an unlit cigarette over in his fingers.

"Don't have a lighter for you this time," Hazel said.

"No shit. Christ, doll, I can see getting picked up in Elk City. That's a piss-ant town, but Amarillo's Potter County, ain't it? How'd you get spotted there?"

Hazel smiled.

"Got in a fight. Didn't really know what I was doing. Another girl came after me 'cause I was cutting in on her turf. Funny thing, it was her who sort of showed me the ropes afterwards. It was her who suggested that I skip town, and all I'd have was a bench warrant."

"Was it her who introduced you to the fairy dust, too? Some friend, sis. At least I'm offering to go back after your purse."

"You're not going back after my purse, dumbie. You're calling your PO so your little brother isn't left on the outside dealing with Billy on his lonesome. I'm heading out."

"Heading out where?"

"You're probably better off not knowing."

Tim tucked the cigarette behind his ear.

He asked, "So, when I go out there to make that call, you're gonna take off, right?"

Hazel nodded.

Tim reminded her, "I found you once before when you lit out. Wanna bet I can do it again?"

"I got out of the gambling racket," she said.

Tim nodded. He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"Take the rest of my gate money. Don't go back to your place, alright? Just go."

* * *

Billy Simon sat next to Eleanor at his dining room table. One officer sat across from them. The other leaned against the wall behind them. On the table between them sat Hazel's purse and a ring.

"That ring has been reported stolen," said the first officer. He'd called back to the station and been rewarded with one hell of a tale.

"Yes, I reported it stolen," Eleanor told him. "It was stolen by the little tramp who owns that purse."

"No," the officer said. "Actually, it was reported stolen before that. Then it was found underneath the car in your garage. You know it's a crime to file a false report, right?"

Eleanor set her jaw.

"Are you going to do something about that girl or not? I told you, I went out into my garage and she was there. You know she was in the neighborhood- you have her purse."

"But I don't have her," the officer said. "But I do have the two of you- I have you in possession of stolen property and calling in a false report on top of it. Mrs. Simon, it was you who filled the report. Billy, do you want to cop to the theft just to make it fair?"

* * *

Tim hung up the phone. He took the cigarette from behind his ear and lit it with a dying butt from the nearest ashtray.

"Who'd you get?" Curly asked.

"Alderson," Tim told him. "He's a pushover. Wants to see me at eight-thirty tomorrow morning. After that, I bet I don't have to see him again for a couple of weeks."

Darry asked him: "That girl is no longer in my kitchen, right?"

"The girl is no longer in your kitchen," Tim replied.

"Where is she?" Two-Bit asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine."

* * *

Hazel figured that she was already sunk, so she ignored Tim and went back to her room in the big house. She didn't turn the light on. She opened her dresser and began emptying her clothes into a carpet bag. At the bottom of the drawer was an envelope that contained her birth certificate. She could get another driver's license in Kansas or Arkansas before the warrants caught up to her. Fayetteville was a college town- that was her best bet for finding work.

At the bottom of another drawer was a Crown Royale bag. Inside, there was another vial with coke in it and a couple of joints. Hazel took the bag and put it in her jacket pocket. She zipped up her carpet bag and slipped out into the hall. She went to the kitchen, intending to leave the house through the back door. She paused and thought about what Tim had said- that she wasn't any good at the grift.

She chucked the Crown Royale bag on the counter, and continued out the door. Maybe, she thought, she'd be a little better at it with a clear head. She'd try it that way anyway.

* * *

At eight-thirty the next morning, Tim went to the Tulsa County courthouse to find his parole officer. Eleanor Simon was sitting on a bench in the hall outside of one of the courtrooms.

"Ma'am," he said and walked on passed. He frowned and turned back, having noticed that Eleanor was handcuffed to the bench where she was sitting.

"Where's Billy?" He asked her.

"Least of my worries," she replied.

"I suppose it's all in the Lord's hands then?"

Eleanor glared at him. She said:

"Tell Hazel she should come down and claim her purse. I'm beginning to think that you two do know each other."

"Not nearly as well as I'd like," Tim said. He nodded to Eleanor and continued down the hall to find his parole officer.


End file.
